


Confiscated Phones and Interesting Bones

by Plandai



Series: 2018 One Phanfic Every Day Until Christmas Challenge [13]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Domestic, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-13
Packaged: 2019-09-17 20:04:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16980936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Plandai/pseuds/Plandai
Summary: Dan and Phil take their kids to the zoo.





	Confiscated Phones and Interesting Bones

The Howell-Lester household was nothing but chaos at the moment, that’s what happens when you try to wake up early in the morning on a school night. Unfortunately, the now five-year-old Olly had outgrown the phase of his life where waking up at six in the morning was a regular occurrence, and twelve-year-old Gracie was fat approaching the miserable time in a person’s life that was adolescence. Dan had pressed snooze five times on the alarm Phil had slept through so now they were running rather late. Dan frantically attempted to get the five-year-old out of bed while practically Dragging Gracie out into the landing to separate her from her beloved bed,

“Come on Gracie,” he groaned, “we’re having a nice day out as a family,”

“I don’t want to go to the zoo,” she shot back, “We have plenty of animals here and I don’t have to get out of bed,” Dan raised his eyebrow,

“Firstly, you call one slightly deaf corgi, a couple of disease-carrying pigeons and the mouse that lives under the floorboards ‘plenty of animals’, secondly, you can sleep when we get home, and thirdly, how the hell do you not like going to the zoo? Your dad likes it so much I sort of thought it was ingrained in his DNA, did he not pass that on?”

Gracie crossed her arms and marched back into her room with a huff. If she was like this now, Dan dreaded to think what she was going to be like as a fully-fledged teenager,

“Get dressed,” he called to her, “And then go downstairs and get some breakfast. We’re leaving in half an hour,”

About an hour later, they were ready to go. Thor followed them to the door, whining pitifully as they left. Phil chucked the silver-haired corgi a bone and he was immediately satisfied. They got into the car and set off. Olly was holding a small plastic bear in his hands, holding it up against the window to make it look like it was running along, and Gracie was looking at her Phone. They had actually put off giving her a phone until high school, but once she began going out with friends and getting the bus home, she needed a way of communicating with her. Now however she was undeniably attached to it. Sometimes Dan thought she liked it more than she liked her parents.

When they finally arrived at their destination. They could go in. the last time they had gone to the zoo was when Gracie was really tiny, and while she may not have been exited, Olly was. He took off towards the front gates with surprising speed. When Phil finally caught up to him, serval years of inactivity completely butchering any stamina he previously had, he was pointing happily at a picture of an elephant painted onto the wall. He then proceeded to make what Phil assumed was supposed to be an elephant noise and ran back to Dan and Gracie.  Phil let out a deep sigh and trudged back towards them, he was getting too old for this,

“I need to start going to the gym,” he groaned, holding his back in pain. Dan rolled his eyes,

“Stop being so dramatic,” he laughed, “you’re forty-two, not sixty,” Phil shrugged,

“That’s easy for you to say, you’re still in your thirties,”

When they had gotten in and paid for their tickets, Gracie seemed to cheer up a little bit, and her face properly lit up when she saw a sigh for said small, aquatic bird. She loved penguins, they were just so cute. Turned to her parents,

“Can we go and see them first please,” Dan shook his head. We’ll make our way there, but we have plenty of time to look at everything else as well. She rolled her eyes but stopped complaining, so in Dan’s mind, his answer had been a success.

The strolled past the elephants, to which Olly decided to do his awful impression once more. A couple of visitors cooed at him, although the elephants themselves were giving his rather strange looks. The meerkats seemed to be the little boy’s favourite, however. He watched them scurry around on the sandy earth after the mealworms a keeper had just thrown in. He especially liked the way they stood up on their hind legs, eyes darting from side to side. They had spent about ten minutes at the enclosure before Phil turned around and realised Gracie was missing,

“When was the last time you saw Gracie?” he asked Dan, feeling a little worried.

He knew she was perfectly capable of navigating their way around a zoo, and she had her phone on her, but to him, she would always be his little girls and the idea of her getting lost terrified him. They both looked around panicked for a moment, before she emerged from behind a tree, eyes glued to her Phone screen,

“Gracie!” Dan exclaimed, “Don’t go wandering off like that again. We were worried about you,”

Gracie rolled her eyes,

“I didn’t even go that far,” she said before going back to her phone. Dan peaked over her shoulder,

“What are you doing on there?” he said curiously. Gracie immediately pulled the phone to her chest,

“I’m just texting someone,” she said nonchalantly, although her body posture said otherwise. He considered digging a little, but decided against it when he realised it would only put her in an even worse mood,

“Well you can either use it to take pictures or put it away, we’re having a fun day out at the zoo and if you can’t be bothered looking at the animals, what was the point in bringing you?”

Gracie groaned dramatically and shoved the phone into her jeans pocket, with such force Dan was worried it would burst right through,

“We can go and see the penguins now if you’d like,” he said softly. Gracie glared at him for a moment before nodding and walking off towards the exhibit. Phil raised an eyebrow at him,

“We have to go through six more years of this? I’m not sure if I can cope,”

When they got to the penguins, there was a talk on, and the keeper was currently throwing fish into the pool. The penguins waddled around, flapping their little flippers as they went to dive into the water. The ones who were already swimming around were visible through a glass panel. One swam right up to the glass and looked as though it were going to run straight into it, before nimbly darting around and going for a fish that had just landed with a quiet splash. Olly decided to squeeze his way through the crowd, so he could get right up to the glass, leaving Phil on his tiptoes looking over the crowd to keep an eye on him. Gracie instead decided to stay with her parents, although she continued to watch the show intently.

After they were done there, it was time for lunch. They stopped off at a small restaurant to eat. They had bought Olly a toy tiger at one of the kiosks on the way around, and he was currently walking it around the table, quietly growling. He suddenly leapt towards Phil and shoved the toy into his chest. Phil brought his hand to his chest and began to dramatically cry out in pain,

“Oh no!” he exclaimed,” The tiger has got me,” suddenly Olly’s eyes went wide,

“Oh no! I’ll save you!”

He grabbed the tiger and pretended to wrestle it to the table. He held it down for a moment before standing up and hugging it to his chest,

” He said he wants to be friends not,” he whispered, climbing onto Phil’s lap to let him pet it. Phil shoved him off gently,

“Go and sit down, your food will be here soon,”

Gracie was looking down at her phone, grin on her face. Dan reached over and lucked it out of her hand,

“Who is James?” he asked jokily, shutting the phone down and placing it on the table. Gracie blushed bright red and went to grab it back. Dan stopped her, they could have a proper conversation rather than just staring at screens.

“He’s just a friend,” she stuttered, not meeting his eye. Dan pursed his lips together,

“Ok, just don’t do anything stupid,” Gracie nodded, and they dropped the subject.

When the food came, they fell into a rather strange conversation about anteaters. Olly was being messy as usual, although thankfully not as bad as usual, and with Gracie’s phone removed she was joining in for once. They made a plan of what to see next based off the zoo map which Phil had grabbed at the ticket booth. Olly was now very excited to see the tigers, and Phil wouldn’t mind looking at the lions, although it was the red pandas and sloths that really grabbed his attention. Dan wasn’t too bothered but seeing his family have a nice day out together put him in a really good mood. He was so lucky, even if he did have a moody daughter, slightly weird husband and excitable toddler.

The next thing they did was visit the information centre, only because they had gone pat it before and Olly wanted to look at the cool bones. They had to usher him out when Phil spotted the tiger skull in the corner.  When they were finally ready to go home, it was in a good mood. Olly fell asleep almost immediately when he got into the car, tiger clutched in one hand and the bear in the other. Gracie began to yawn, and Phil felt his head slump against the window. Dan grinned,

“It’s only six in the evening guys?” he said with a quiet laugh,

“We’ve had a busy day,” Gracie murmured.

When they arrived home, Olly went straight to bed. Phil ordered pizza for himself, Dan and Gracie since they were all too tired to cook. They ate it quietly and it was only about twenty minutes in that Dan realised he still had Gracie’s Phone. He pulled it out of his pocket and handed it back to her. He expected her to grab it and disappear upstairs, but she instead put onto her back pocket and turned back to the film that was playing. Dan smiled at her happily. It was nice to know he hadn’t lost his daughter to the teenage years just yet.


End file.
